Food and Snacks

Food and Snacks

What do you guys do for food and snacks while backpacking? A small butane stove like the jetboil line of products and some non-perishable prepared things to cook?

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 4:21 pm

by Phil

Haha! Gear and food is a whole other subject!

The stove: yeah, something like a Jetboil and an 8oz fuel canister. I've got a lot of stoves for different situations and various reasons, but I generally prefer a larger pot than the Jetboil comes with. My go-to set is a Brunton Vesta stove, a Snow Peak Trek 1400 pot, a long-handled REI Lexan spoon, a 20oz Ti mug, and sometimes a StS Delta bowl. It's all a matter of personal preference though, and everyone is going to have a different favorite kit.

Food: Freeze dried meals and some soups for dinners, we do lots of dried fruit at all meals and for snacks, sometimes salami for lunch, oatmeal and more dried fruit for breakfast (freeze dried eggs suck),and we live on Powerbars. Starbucks coffee and Snapple diet iced tea packets at the beginning and end of the day are big for us as well. Find foods that you like, are high on carbs and protein, and that can be found in lightweight form. And don't forget that it's all going to have to fit into a bear canister, along with scented toiletries, etc that you're going to have to either rent for $5 when you pick up your permit, or buy ahead of time.

You have a lot of decisions to make and gear to buy. Before you do, ask those of us here that have probably tried it all, and rejected most of it. Learning curves for outdoor equipment can be steep and expensive, and there's no substitute for figuring out what works and doesn't through someone else's experience.

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 4:25 pm

by MadDiver

I personally carry a small butane stove like this https://www.rei.com/product/643058/snow ... auto-stove . MSR also makes one called the "pocket rocket" pretty much the same thing. Some people carry small alcohol stoves or other things, I find the one I linked above work great as does the JetBoil system. My dinners are prepacked dehydrated meals, Mountain House is my usual go to brand. Snacks: whatever you like, fruit and nuts, power/cliff bars, jerky. I sometimes carry a small block of cheddar and a summer sausage. Baby bell cheeses are good too. Peanut butter and honey on a tortilla wrap. I usually bring single serve gatorade packs and drink one during the day. Breakfast: dehydrated breakfast similar to dinner but eggs of some kind, or granola and (dehydrated) milk, just add water, you can buy pre-packed but far cheaper to make your own and very easy too; Instant oatmeal; those instant coffee single serve packets from starbucks. A nice bar of good chocolate for dessert. And bourbon, don't forget the bourbon

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 4:29 pm

by MadDiver

Freakishly similar Phil, freakishly similar

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 8:35 pm

by Phil

A couple other good stoves are the Snow Peak LiteMax and the Soto OD-1R, but I find that I need a footrest for my canister with those because the pot on top makes it unstable and top-heavy, and the profile sits too high making it susceptible to wind. I like my old Brunton because it has a lower profile, a wider pot support, and has a valve assembly that allows me to easily invert the canister, so, in order, I don't have to ever carry a windscreen, worry about my food ending up in the dirt, and get more efficient fuel consumption at lower air temperatures and higher altitudes. The Jetboils are a good system, but a 1 liter pot will only boil 1/2 liter of water at a time, and I like more on hand for hot drinks and whatnot.

For prepared freeze dried entrees we prefer Mountain House as well. There's also some nice meals from Mary Jane Farms. Backpacker's Pantry stuff is only so-so, and the foil pouches are thicker than the fenders on my car. We also make a lot of our own stuff with the dehydrator, so we end up saving a ton of money and get what we want, as well as less bulky trash to pack out.

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2016 9:36 am

by MadDiver

Closely related to food is water. I recommend (and carry myself) the Sawyer mini filter for a solo hiker https://www.rei.com/product/890900/sawy ... ter-filter Weighs next to nothing, super simple, and inexpensive. Skip the big heavy, fancy, expensive pumps. Just don't let it freeze, toss is in the bottom of your sleeping bag at night if you must.

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2016 12:17 pm

by Phil

Which then leads us to the subject of a sleeping bag and a pack to put everything in...

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2016 4:55 pm

by robow8

After a few days on the trail, I'm really missing fresh fruits and vegetables. Recently, Backpacker magazine had a recipe for Carrot/Pineapple salad that you make up, dehydrate, and then rehydrate on the trail. I made some up and tried it at home. Thought it was okay, so I dehydrated the rest of the batch. Took some with me last weekend on a trip and it was delicious. Added water in the morning and by lunch it was ready.

Re: Food and Snacks

We use a Pocket Rocket stove. Pretty darn reliable, light, and cheap. We do like the little plastic legs we bought that make the stove a lot more stable than the simple gas canister base.

Food? Our website has a whole section on this. Oatmeal, cocoa and fruit for breakfast. Salami, hard cheese, crackers, fruit and energy bars for lunch. Freeze dried dinners (we try them all, and have some favorites, but to each his own) for sure, but we always start with a cup of Miso Soup for hydration as well as flavor (something I learned from a long cycling trip years ago). And fruit and energy bars.

And always GORP as a reserve.

And there's nothing like a little snort of something from an airline mini bottle at the end of the day....

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2016 9:24 pm

by Phil

We use the Trader Joe's Miso soup packets and add our own dried tofu, green onions and nori. For less than $100, our Presto Dehydro 6301 is one of the best pieces of "gear" we ever bought. We make meals and snacks for pennies on the dollar when compared to what they want for it at the stores. Fruits, veggies, meats, fish..........it's crazy the stuff you can come up with.

Robow- that is the most vivid orange I've ever seen.

Balzaccom- you could use those carrots as bait and empty entire medium sized lakes in a matter of hours.

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2016 6:35 am

by balzaccom

But how do you cast them with a fly rod?

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2016 7:38 am

by weendoggy

My favorite dinner additive is Ms.Dash and fresh, yes FRESH, zucchini squash and/or baby carrots, with Minute Rice and fresh caught trout. My mouth's watering now. You can find small (under 6") squash that doesn't need a lot of room and will last for a week easily. Breakfast is much the same as others but add in occasional pancake mix with jelly (that I borrow from restaurants when eating). Anything to break up the madness. Lunch is the hardest but do find room for copa, cheese and crackers and a few instant breakfast shakes (choc is my favorite). To each his own, but don't over think how much you think you'll eat. I tend to eat less outside so I pack accordingly.

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2016 7:42 am

by weendoggy

balzaccom wrote:But how do you cast them with a fly rod?

For me, I use those inexpensive TV add collapsible rod with a lightweight spinning reel. I don't have any issues casting on a lake or stream or river with it and it compacts to about 16". I use fly's and a leader with those fillable bubbles to gauge the distance I want with about a 6' leader. Never had a trip without fresh trout. Sometimes the catch/release is so fast I get bored. Oh, I take my small frypan to cook them in oil I pack as well. Yum, yum!

Another great refreshing snack is casaba melon slices with a fresh squeeze of lime over them. I prepare the melon prior to the trip and use a zip lock to keep fresh. The lime is whole and use it while dining. However, this is only good for a couple of days unless you can really keep the melon cold.

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2016 8:15 am

by Phil

Oh that's right, you fly fish. I guess you would have to either tie it up or stick the carrots on the hook. Double whammy. Hell, I would bite them just because I was so mesmerized by the color, and more so because I have a little brain that automatically equates visual stimuli to food.

You called mosquitoes something like "little fighter pilots", we've pinned that classification down to "Messerschmitts".

If we're going to catch and not release, we bring a hunk of heavy duty foil and a packet of French onion soup mix. Toss it in the coals or on a rock.

With the veggies, etc, rehydration makes them almost as good as fresh if you do it right. Lasts longer, weighs less.

I'm sure we've all gotten up to higher altitudes and found our appetites all but gone, but still aware that we have to take in some calories. Most stuff will just turn your stomach, and every bite is dread. The one prepared entree we've found that works well in that situation is the Mountain House Rice and Chicken. We've also found that it holds its own cold better than anything else.

We "borrow" nothing. We just flat out steal honey and Sriracha packets wherever we find them with complete impunity.

Re: Food and Snacks

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 1:11 pm

by damu21

thanks for all the replies! that backpacking the sierra website was pretty helpful!